Chapter 42

Training

While waiting for the Senator to contact me, I went around several undiscovered dungeons throughout the United States.

-You've met the clear conditions of the dungeon!

-Clear condition: Eliminate all monsters on the perimeter.

-The boundaries of the dungeon are weakened.

I just cleared another one. There was nothing suitable for additional compensation, so I took an A-Rank skill card.

"Well, now..."

I thought about going out of the gate right away, but I changed my mind when I saw the environment. It was a jungle extending to the horizon.

I had just finished off all the monsters, so there was no distraction for a while.

Unlike closed-door dungeons like an ant cave, there was no chance of the groundbreaking or ceiling collapsing even if the sword blast was blown as much as possible, and there was no need to worry about traces remaining like the Earth.

In other words, it was an optimal place for training. I took the magic sword and aimed it at the air, and it immediately realized it.

It was troublesomely quick-witted.

'Oh! Are you training? Right. Sometimes you need time to unravel the sword movements alone and examine them calmly. Training through real situations is important, but if you have an enemy in front of you, you're more committed to killing them than thinking deeply about your trajectory!'

Would I be able to train 'quietly' when I was left 'alone', all while it was babbling like that?

I swung the sword in the hope that Danton would get the statue as soon as possible.

Boo-boom!

I cut and cut as I felt like doing so. The sword blasts poured like rain and sliced the air.

Instead of thinking and moving, I let my body flow as it went. The amplification of the sword movement was smoother and more sophisticated than in Chicago.

I stopped when I thought this was enough to warm up.

Contrary to previous concerns, the magic sword kept its mouth shut throughout the sword movements.

I thought it was out of the ordinary, but soon I could see the reason. It must have been observing my sword path quietly.

It was not a sword that reacted to the enemy's movements, but a sword that pulled out the potential in me. It could infer a lot from it.

'Hm. Now I know for sure. You must have been holding the sword for about 30 years... Or so.'

Wrong, it had been a little over two months.

However, the analysis is not entirely wrong. The sword movement I've seen the longest and the most is Randy's, and it's all engraved in my head. The sword movement I unraveled was influenced by him unknowingly.

Randy had been holding the sword for about 25 years, so its guess was roughly right.

'It's not a short time in terms of the human lifespan, but it's not enough by absolute standards. But it must have been supported by considerable exposure to hands-on experience. Since your race is human... you must have lived most of your life on the battlefield.'

It was an expression that accurately described Randy's life.

'You, like any other Awakened, found a good teacher or a sword that you learned based on your skills in the beginning. However, it seems that the period of learning was not long.'

Oh, this was indeed kind of creepy. I could guess that it was not a magic sword for no reason. That had been why the previous owners were mesmerized.

'Another thing, as a whole, the mix of two styles that didn't harmonize. There is a mixture of 'rough texture' that emphasizes bold lines and 'sharp texture' that emphasizes precise Mana movement control.'

That was true.

Instead of imitating Randy from my previous life, I tried to mix my strengths that he didn't have.

'I'm getting more greedy after finding this out. What do you think? Please help me so that I can help you more reliably and efficiently. Be my true master...'

"Shut your mouth."

'It's because it's such a waste! There is a limit to telepathic advice... so if you accept my suggestion, I can teach you more efficiently!'

Oh, the bronze statue! When was the statue arriving?

'With my help, it's like putting another wing on your back. The wings I'm giving you can lead you to a much higher state than the one you got from the dungeon! Oh, of course, in a symbolic way. You understand, right?'

I didn't have to threaten it that I won't be swayed since I was aware of what it was.

Then, it wouldn't even pretend to listen to me and curse and pour out profanities as I did now to give up the sword. Nevertheless, I should not rely on [The Successor's Eyes] and agree to become a master.

I began mumbling to myself, 'It's not like the devil could force me to sign a contract.'

The devil always sought the 'agreement' of his opponent whenever he signed a contract.

Urging one to accept the proposal on free will could be compared to deliberately ruining one self's immune system in a biological aspect. In the physical part, it was like a Hunter intentionally disabling his Mana Barrier. In my previous life, I had seen a Hunter with a passive skill of [Poison Immunity], temporarily disabling it because he wanted to get drunk. It was practically the same thing.

As I clenched my jaw and was about to swing the sword, it spoke, 'Oh! I have a good idea. Are you learning any other swordsmanship than the [Sword Mastery]?'

I grinned. Swordsman skills? I had seen a lot of it. It said urgently when I laughed at it without answering.

'My advice maximizes the effectiveness of your sword skills!'

Yeah, many hunters who put up with the [Whisper of the Sword] ended up falling for it.

'Please show me! I'll be able to give you some meaningful help on proficiency.'

I meant to test the amplification of the sword movements with the skills. I performed Randy's mastery skill, [Artha's Sword Dance], that I could remember.

Whooooooooooh!

Blue Mana that flowed inside the body transferred to the sword, and it transformed into a 'sword energy' that could be seen, even if one was not Hunter himself.

The color of the red energy emanated by the sword using the [Artha's Sword Dance] was dark purple. As soon as I wielded the sword for the first time, the magic sword exclaimed.

'Ah! This is the sword movement of the King Artha!'

I recalled the movement in my memory.

'When the proficiency of King Artha's sword movement is low, it is often underestimated. But if you become truly skilled at it...'

It was Randy's favorite movement combination. Every time the sword cuts through the air, the purple sword energy remained like an afterimage. I left numerous traces of the sword in front of me, almost as if to fill the void.

'If you go to that stage, you break down the boundaries between dynamic and static, and you can cross over those at will. What that... means is...'

I spoke, "Like this?"

He went silent for a moment.

'Yes, like... that.'

In front of me, as I stopped the sword, the trajectory of all the sword movement I had wielded so far did not disappear but richly shone in purple. Web-like lines gathered together to create a wall.

I swung the sword lightly in that state. And as I did so...

Swish!

It was so fast that even my sight couldn't follow.

The wall of the sword energy that I had made until now condensed both speed energy and destructive power that I made, swept my front.

Ka-ka-ka-ka-kaboom!

When the dust settled, the result was visible. The thickly-wooded jungle was devastated as if a bulldozer passed by it.

'You're very skilled, aren't you?'

I told him, "Do you have anything to add?"

'Hmm, it's not flawless.'

The skill entered into the slot through the card was like a 'Coloring Book' given to a child who had never drawn a picture.

The system drew the sketch. Hunters just had to paint the right color in the right place, as they were told. They just condensed the Mana along the path that the system told them to.

However, if you were to copy the same page and paint it several times, for example, if you painted a picture of a flower over thousands of times, you might think of this: Why didn't I add shades on these petals instead of painting them completely red? How many more leaves should I draw on that place? How about drawing a blue sky and clouds on the empty background?

Hunters may experience this process unconsciously or consciously to raise their skill levels. What the system told them was the minimum prerequisite for activating the skill. It relied on a hunter's own effort to develop it. Just as artisans and masters, who had repeated the same work for decades, find the most efficient and economic movements, so did hunters.

The magic sword's advice shortened that time.

'Yes, it's not... flawless. No, before that. May I ask who your teacher is? There are traces of someone advising on this skill.'

Of course, it would be curious about the identity of my teacher.

This now was the sword movement that melted in the outcome of the previous life's magic sword's advice to Randy.

For a short time, before the magic sword gave up Randy altogether, it seduced Randy in various ways, as it did to other owners. Randy didn't have to cover his ears and ignore the teachings. He had picked up what he needed to pick up without accepting its offer.

"Nothing to know."

'Well, I don't think it's human, after all.'

"You're noisy. Shall we get out?"

'Oh! Wait a minute. So, I mean that it's still a bit unfortunate that the two strands are vaguely mixed.'

It said the same thing over and over again.

'Nonetheless, you need a very precise Mana control to solve this issue. Precisely enough to fill in the gaps left by the destructive lines and the mixes' lines that do not blend well. I don't know if you can make it.'

"Just like the way I figured out the amplification formula of the sword, that much precisely?"

'It may be harder than that. It's not about finding a fixed answer, but it's about making a new answer. It's not possible through a telepathic explanation. So, if you want to solve this, you have no choice but to be my true master...'

I ignored his noisy telepathy and closed my eyes for a moment. The skill I had just performed came to my mind like an explicit video.

I played it over and over again—a precise and infallible memory. The Mana was driven from inside the body, injected into the sword, and inflated to purple sword energy. I observed the whole process.

The review lasted for more than an hour.

In the meantime, I purposely didn't let go of the sword. The more I concentrated, the farther away the whisper of the magic sword drifted away. In between, I experimented by injecting Mana into the

'So... become... my... true...'

The telepathy of the magic began to be heard distortedly. How long had it been since then?

I opened my eyes when I could not hear any whisper.

'So far, no one has ever regretted it! I think I've already told you more than 500 times, but what it means if you accept, you and I will become one! The essence of all the trajectories of my masters that wielded me for a long time, you'll be able to do it in a moment...!'

I heard its voice again. It was still lying.

I then picked up the sword.

'Oh, did you finally decide? Oh, to be together in a true meaning from now on!'

Weeing!

Purple sword energy soared on the blade.

At that moment, the sword closed its mouth. It had also felt this.

Wheeng!

Once again, I performed the [Artha's Sword Dance], the sword movement combination that I had performed just about an hour ago.

A purple sword wall appeared in front of me. And at the moment, I swung the sword in the opposite direction of what I did a while ago.

Swish!

Ka-ka-ka-ka-kaboom!

This time as well, the purple storm devastated the whole jungle and wiped it out. I compared the two symmetrical traces on me as the center of reference.

The sword had gone silent.

I saw traces of the sword blast that I threw an hour ago. Looking at it again, it seemed like the bulldozer pushed it.

In other words, the traces were very rough. In many areas that did not come into contact with the sword, energy rose like a dirt hill, and there were branches and pieces of rock that were not thoroughly swept away.

I turned my head. This time, I saw the trace of the sword energy that I had just thrown.

"How is it? Is it clean?"

'Very, very clean.'

It seemed that it had initially been a middle of nowhere without a single grass blade from the beginning. A clean, empty flatland appeared out of nowhere between the trees and went through the jungle.

I had supplemented the part that the magic sword pointed out; it was not perfect but to a considerable degree.

"Do you have anything to add this time?"

The sword did not answer.

*

It was about a week after the first meeting that Danton contacted me. I didn't take the magic sword with me again this time.

As I waited in the same place, Danton came up with a whiskey glass in his hand as before. There was no greeting, not even a simple acknowledgment.

He went straight to the point, even before he sat down.

"You don't have to come all the way here next time. If you contact the Korean market when you want a deal, they will respond to those that can be solved there, and it will be passed on to me if it's something they can't... I'll give you the path to directly contact Gina."

'Next time,' he had said. He recognized me as a trader and a subject of the same value as a country's black market.

Considering that he asked me to contact the Korean market instead of coming here meant that he could not give me the right to face him whenever I need it, but it was enough at this stage.

A piece of contact information popped up on my device. According to the name, Gina referred to Oh Jin-hwa of the Korean market, as I had guessed.

"It looks like you're done verifying it."

The Ministry of National Defense tested the samples Danton sent on the corpses of the children of Geruit, which had been secured in advance, and the results were, of course, as I said.

Now it was time to take something since I gave something.

"First of all, we haven't secured the statue yet."

Tsk. I clicked my tongue inwardly.

"What about Decker and Jefferson?"

"We'll look at it together."

What did he mean?

"What time is it now? Well, it's time."

When he gestured, a whole wall turned into a big screen. A live news channel was evidently on.

"Wait two minutes."

Two minutes later, I saw what Danton meant.

The news showed Decker & Jefferson's headquarters' building with the caption of 'Breaking news' on the screen. The reporter's voice continued.

-This breaking news just came in. Today, it was belatedly revealed that Decker & Jefferson had received a special audit jointly conducted by the IRS and the Department of Defense. The audit was conducted behind closed doors for the past four days under the Special Act on Dungeon Management. According to reports, Decker & Jefferson is accused of evading taxes through a ghost company set up in a tax haven and using subsidies from the Department of Defense for other purposes. According to the company's official statement...

I laughed contentedly.

"That's fast."

In my past life, it was supposed to take place four years after this point. It took more than a month to set up an audit team and investigate the allegations.

If the audit started four days ago, it was only three days after I met Danton. The preparation period had been reduced from 30 days to 3 days. This was the power of Edward Danton.

"There's not a single line of comment on the research on potions in the news."

"I'm sure they think this audit is really about taxes and subsidies. They'd be mistaken that as the sole purpose."

Danton transferred a file to my device.

The IRS and the Ministry of National Defense got this by pretending to be after something else. I looked through the contents and spoke.

"That's the Detroit research facility where the largest number of healing potions were shipped to."

"There are about 40 researchers who officially work there. But look at the details of the expenses."

"Food, bedding, clothing, and water... A large number of quality goods to just survive. I think they would feed over 1,000 people a year if it's this much. It's like a refugee camp."

I only knew now that they had collected all of them in Detroit in this era. Later, facilities would be dispersed throughout the United States, and the number of inmates would be scattered. To avoid the government's eyes, the facility had been relocated several times, and all of its records had never been seen in the future. Even Nate didn't know.

"The Ministry of National Defense also noticed. The operation will begin in two days. If you're going to do something about it, you'll have to go now."

"Thank you for your advice."

He looked at me with an interested gaze. "So, what are you going to do?"

I answered while looking into his eyes. "You'll find out soon enough."